By Marnie Kunz, NASM-certified trainer, USATF-, RRCA-certified running coach

Strength training for runners is something that often gets overlooked as we scramble to get in our running miles and races. It doesn’t seem necessary, some runners say, between complaining about difficulty with injuries, weight loss, or speed. Well, as a personal trainer and running coach, I beg to differ — strength training is one of the best ways to prevent or recover from running injuries, boost metabolism, lose fat, get stronger and improve your overall fitness level.

Reasons to Strength Train

Fitness doesn’t have to be either running or weights, as many people think — you can do both! If you’re tired of that extra belly jiggle or feeling like you can’t make any improvements in your fitness level no matter how much you run, strength training may be the secret sauce you’ve been missing.

Combining your running program with strength training will help prevent running injuries, correct muscle imbalances, boost metabolism, improve your fitness level, and can also aid with weight loss. Adding resistance workouts to your training will help you break through your fitness rut and improve your lean muscle mass, stepping up to higher levels of fitness.

And strength training for runners is a fun way to add variety to your fitness program and offers indoor workout options on days when the weather outside is too frightful to run.

My Strength Training Journey

I was lucky I grew up doing sports and was exposed to strength training early on, with weight room workouts a regular part of track practices in high school and college. I walked away knowing enough of the basics to continue doing strength training workouts on my own as an adult, but I usually did not follow a program consistently. When I became a certified personal trainer with NASM, I learned so much more about the mechanics and benefits of resistance training, and I was able to design a strength training program that helped me build more lean muscle mass, delay some of the physical effects of aging I’d been experiencing, such as muscle loss and weight gain, and best of all, strength training has helped me to feel like my old self again — energetic, strong and able to conquer the world. I am happy to share my knowledge and experience with this strength training for runners guide.

What Is Strength Training?

Strength training — or resistance training — is an exercise that builds muscle mass in your body. There are two types of muscle fibers. Endurance strength training builds slow-twitch muscles — or Type I muscle, while hypertrophy strength training builds Type II or fast-twitch muscles.

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Types of Muscle

Type I muscles are slower to fatigue and are smaller in size than Type II, fast-twitch muscles, which produce greater force and tire quickly. Type I muscles help your body maintain posture and balance and perform for long periods — such as marathon running. These are the long, lean muscles of long-distance runners.

Type II muscles help you exert more power and speed, and type II muscles are formed from sprinting and weight lifting higher weight volumes. Type II muscles give you more pronounced muscle definition and help sculpt your body with defined glutes, biceps, triceps, abs, and more. You need both types of muscle to perform your best as an athlete, and your exact ratio of Type I and Type II muscle fibers depends a lot on your genetics and your training, and your goals (i.e. an ultra runner needs much more slow-twitch muscle fibers than a 5K obstacle course runner). We can’t control our genetics so we will focus on our workouts — strength training for runners.

Keep in mind that as you strength train, when you do bodyweight or low-weight exercises with a high amount of reps, you are building your Type 1 endurance muscles and when you use a higher amount of weights and do fewer reps, you are focusing on your bigger sized, Type II muscles.

Benefits of Strength Training for Runners

There are so many benefits of strength training for runners. Here are a few:

Improves your running form and efficiency.
Helps correct muscle imbalances.
Prevents injuries.
Boosts your metabolism, which can help with maintaining a healthy weight.
Allows you to sculpt your body, giving muscle definition.

Whether you are strength training for form, function, or a mix of both, it’s important to understand some basic training principles before you begin.

Strength Training Principles

It’s vital to learn the correct form for the strength training exercises you will be doing. If you do not maintain correct posture and form, you increase your risk of injury and will reap fewer health benefits from your training program. If you are tackling heavy weights, do not allow your form to be compromised as this will also put you at risk of injury. Any time you start to lose your form or can’t maintain it, stop, rest, and lighten your weight amount until you can maintain proper form. I focus on form with videos of each exercise for my virtual training clients.

The principle of progressive overload is key for weightlifting. Progressive overload is the principle that you increase the stress and resistance placed on your body while training in small increments. You do not want to go from doing bodyweight squats to squatting 200 lbs, in other words. Instead, you can build up by adding 5- or 10-lbs. dumbbells to your bodyweight squats and eventually increase the weight over a period of weeks and months until you can squat 50 lbs. or more.

If you want to maintain your current fitness level, you can keep doing the current fitness program you are doing. But if you want to reach higher fitness levels, improve your leg strength and speed, lose fat and build muscle, you will need to increase your resistance and follow the principle of progressive overload in your strength training program.

Best Strength Training Exercises for Runners

The million-dollar question is what is the best strength training exercise for runners? Well, unfortunately, as with most things in life, there is no one easy answer. Your training and fitness goals and your running goals as well as your injury history and any muscle imbalances will come into play when determining the best strength training program for you. Here are a few staples that I generally recommend for healthy runners who want to build lean muscle mass, improve running performance and boost metabolism:

Glute Exercises

The gluteus maximus (butt) is the biggest muscle in the human body, and building your glutes helps burn a high amount of calories (large muscles require large energy expenditures to contract) and also weak glutes contribute to many running problems and injuries, including knee valgus (caving in of the knee when moving), runner’s knee, shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, and iliotibial-band syndrome.

Squats, hip thrusters, and deadlifts are some of the most powerful exercises to increase glute strength (and offer the bonus of great aesthetic results!). Check out the 3 Best Glute Exercises to Get Results for more on the best glute workouts and how to do them.

Lateral Strength Training

A strength training for runners program should also focus on lateral strength, as runners do not often work their lateral muscles, and lateral strength helps with stabilizing the body during runs. I recommend lateral lunges as a great starting exercise to improve lateral strength. You can check out my lunge tips for runners for more details and variations on lunges.

Stability Exercises

Stability exercises are also a key component of strength training for runners. Stability helps your running form and also prevents common running injuries. I recommend starting with simple balance exercises before your strength training workout such as standing on each foot for 20 seconds and progressing to more complicated exercises such as one-legged squats. Your core is also vital for stabilizing as you run, so incorporate core strengthening exercises into your strength training program.

Upper Body Strength Training

Many runners skip out on upper body exercises as they fear getting too “bulky” or see no reason to need arm strength. The truth is if you want to be a well-rounded athlete and improve your overall fitness level and body composition, upper body conditioning is important. And you would have to use very heavy weights and do a specific program to get very “bulky” in your upper body. For getting started, I recommend push-ups and the chest press (with dumbbells or a barbell) as two key strength training exercises for runners to target large muscles in the upper body. Add in a biceps curl pull-ups or upward rows to round out your program

How to Get Started

If you are excited to hit higher fitness levels and improve your running form and efficiency, strength training will do wonders. I recommend my Runstreet Virtual Training for a personalized training plan that will address your particular running background, goals, and fitness level.

Do you strength train? Comment below and tag me - @Runstreet on Instagram - to share your workouts and get cheered on.😊

Happy lifting and happy running, Wolf Pack!

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified personal trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach based in Brooklyn, NY. Marnie likes helping people get and stay active to enjoy a better quality of life. When she’s not doing fitness things, Marnie enjoys exploring with her dog, a mischievous rescue Akita.

Strength Training for Runners Guide